Liam Wong, the photographer of Techno Orientalism.
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

Date

From his shots of Tokyo's sometimes cramped alleys, illuminated by pale neon lights, one can hear the sounds of starters struggling to light up, creating an intermittent blur; or distinctly smell the acrid, pungent odor of Japanese cuisine from one of the diners crowding the working-class neighborhoods.

Night settings, lit only by neon lights: Liam Wong’s photographs transport us to another world.

Liam Wong‘s photographs look like scenes from a videogame, too perfect to be real, and yet they are.

His nocturnal settings are taken in the alleys of Tokyo, where darkness prevails and blue and purple neon lights burst through the gloom, creating evocative and enveloping chiaroscuro.
The colors of his photos overwhelm the senses, capturing reality in an almost magical way, where the gaze is lost between the shadowy silhouettes of passers-by, intent on their daily activities, and the perspective of the narrow alleys of the Japanese megalopolis.

Of clear Japanese origins, Wong was born and raised in Scotland, in Edinburgh, where he trained as a game designer: video games, with their digitized aesthetics bordering on perfection, have always been a starting point for his work. At the Computer Arts University in Dundee he honed his passion since childhood, which led him to become the youngest director of the video game company of Ubisoft, a major Canadian company.

From there, collaboration with brands such as Sony, CD Projekt, Apple and Google: important work experiences that have always accompanied his activity as a self-taught photographer.

In 2015, he decided to leave for Japan with a Canon 5D Mark III: a trip that would change his life; here, he combines his love for video games, science fiction, Japanese anime and Cyberpunk with photographic art, being inspired by artists such as Fan Ho, Sauk Leiterbut and Masataka Nakano, helping to shape his unique style as a street photographer.

In December 2019, he published his first monograph: ‘TO:KY:OO’, a crowdfunded project, which was so successful that it became the largest funding on the crowdfunding platform ever recorded in the UK. The photo collection is all about Tokyo, its nightlife in the city, its inhabitants and their habits: a night tour of the city, without physically being there.

From his shots of Tokyo‘s sometimes cramped alleys, illuminated by pale neon lights, one can hear the sounds of starters struggling to light up, creating an intermittent blur; or distinctly smell the acrid, pungent odor of Japanese cuisine from one of the diners crowding the working-class neighborhoods. His Art is sublime.

“I would describe a lot of my work as neon-drenched streets after dark.”

Liam Wong

More
articles

Join
Pluriverse

Subscribe to our newsletter

© Pluriverse 2023
Registered office: Via Romaniello 21/B, Napoli (NA), Italy | N. REA: NA 823189
Privacy